This invention relates to a training and crowd gate for urging animals to move through a passageway and more specifically, to a nonphysical crowd gate for moving a herd of dairy cows to a milking parlor.
Pertinent prior art includes the following U.S. Pat. Nos. Wood 2,476,233; Anstiss et al 2,691,359; Martinmaas 3,293,800; and Thompson et al 3,805,741. A Czechloslovakian patent 110,525 may also be relevant.
In certain prior art devices a movable fence section with and without electrically charged wires was proposed for prodding animals to move through a passageway. However, movable fence sections are physical crowd gates which are built of heavy materials to withstand the force of a crowding herd of animals against them. Moreover, a physical crowd gate, even with an electrical conductor to prod the animals along and to keep them from collecting against the movable fence section, is a throwback to the cumbersome guard gates which were previously mentioned and replaced by the electric guard gates. Another disadvantage of a physical crowd gate is that such a gate has to be pivoted or raised before the next group of livestock can move through the passageway. In addition, none of the prior art devices trained animals to walk ahead of a nonphysical charged barrier upon hearing an audible signal associated with the movement thereof so that animals would later walk ahead of the moving barrier in an uncharged state upon hearing the audible signal.
In still other prior art devices it was proposed that an electric guard gate replace the cumbersome and unwiedly gates usually employed on live-stock pens. Such electric guard gates included a cross arm with spaced vertical conductors suspended therefrom to shock animals that attempted to pass through the gate but allowed an automobile or truck to be driven therethrough without stopping to open or close the gate. However, none of these guard gates were movable crowd gates for urging animals to move through a passageway.